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arrested?’
    â€˜Arrested! Sure, that’s not the half of it. Yous’d be sent to the Tower and chained up until the queen said to let yous go.’ The knocker sniffed, a lengthy and very wet-sounding sniff that made Julie want to blow her nose. ‘This queen isn’t like the Queen-that-was. She’s a feckin’ dragon if ever I saw one. Not a hair out of place, not a step out of line – all bite and no bark.’
    Julie and Aisling exchanged a worried glance.
    â€˜Do you think we could come in, then?’ said Julie. ‘You wouldn’t want us to get into trouble.’
    The knocker gave them both a considering look. ‘If it was up to me, I’d have yous warming yereselves by the fire as soon as look at yous, but I’m only the knocker, you understand? I’ll do me best, but it’s the head of the house that opens this door and it’s she’ll close it – whichever side yous are on when she does. You follow me?’
    Julie and Aisling nodded.
    â€˜Well, as long as that’s understood.’ The knocker took a deep breath and lifted itself up into the air. ‘Mind yeer ears!’ it cried and banged itself down on the door once, twice, three times, louder than any doorknocker Julie had ever heard.
    Before the clang of the third knock had died down, the little door that Julie had thought of as a giant peephole had opened, and a grumpy wrinkled face had appeared at it.
    â€˜What?’ said the face.
    â€˜Forgive us for intruding,’ said Aisling, ‘but we’re new to the City and we didn’t realise there was a curfew. Would you be so kind as to shelter us so that we don’t get in trouble?’
    The face looked at her oddly. ‘Did you swallow a dictionary or what? There’s no call to be talking like a nob round these parts. You want to come in?’
    â€˜Um. Yes.’
    â€˜Can yous pay rent?’
    â€˜Eeeehm …’
    Julie tugged at Aisling’s coat-sleeve and whispered in her ear, ‘Say yes, for God’s sake!’
    â€˜But rent? Do you have enough money for that?’
    â€˜We only need to stay for one night. And anyway, the important thing is to get indoors before we get caught.’
    â€˜Good point.’ Aisling smiled at the unsmiling face and said at a normal volume, ‘Of course we can pay rent! No problem whatsoever!’
    The face snorted. ‘Well, yous might as well come in, then.’
    The door to the peephole slammed shut and there was a tooth-clenching shriek and groan of metal scraping over metal, and then the door opened, revealing a dim entrance hall with a rush-strewn floor and a high cobwebby ceiling.
    Julie swallowed at the sight of it. ‘After you,’ she said, nudging Aisling.
    Aisling rolled her eyes and strode in as if it were her own front door, and Julie followed meekly after.
    There was no sign of the person who’d opened the door to them, but Julie could hear a low buzz of conversation coming from somewhere near. Aisling opened the nearest door and peered around it.
    â€˜Staircase,’ she said, closing it after her. ‘Maybe this one –’
    A wave of delicious warmth rushed out of the room as she opened the next door, and Julie shivered; she’d got so used to being cold that she’d forgotten what warm felt like. The room beyond the door looked like a kitchen – an ancient kitchen, with a huge stone chimney and a fire roaring in the hearth and a great big oak table in the middle of the floor. There was a shelf above the hearth that had pots and pans hanging from it, and a small television perched incongruously on the kitchen table. The ceiling and walls were painted white, but all the corners were grey with cobwebs.
    A gruff voice said, ‘Shut the door,’ and Julie started and shut the door firmly behind her.
    There were three men sitting by the hearth – two white and one black, all of them big and beefy